People and events of interest to the Salesian Family of the Eastern U.S., the blogger's homilies, and some of his apostolic and personal doings.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Bird-watching

Bird-watching
At the provincial house we see a lot of fauna, believe it or not. There was a deer on the baseball field one morning this week. It's not unusual to see raccoons, skunks, possums, and rabbits (at least until the red-tailed hawks swoop down)--not to mention countless squirrels both black and gray. And the flying squirrels that I blogged about last September! (http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=25197311#editor/target=post;postID=5761912383848075522) And various forms of vermin.

Then there are the birds: sparrows in super-abundance, starlings, occasional crows, robins, cardinals, the aforementioned hawks, on rare occasions pheasants, and more I'm sure.

Since we're on the water, we see sea gulls, ducks, egrets, swans, and of course that pestilence called the Canada goose.

For the last 3 weeks or so a pair of swans have entranced our community. They've nested on the edge of Clifford's Island (the largest of the 5 islands that give the city park its name), directly across the inlet from our ball field. From our back porch or the dining room we have a clear view of the large nest, usually with momma (presumably) sitting on it, and often poppa nearby, in or out of the water. We may be waiting almost as expectantly for the great event as the parents!

This afternoon I walked down to the island and shot a few photos of momma on the nest and poppa in the water--he swam up pretty quickly when he saw me approaching, but I kept a good distance from the nest. Here are few pix.

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About Me

Member of Salesians of Don Bosco since 1966. As of July 2016, parish priest in Champaign, Ill., and director of the SDB community there. Priest since 1978. Teaching and administrative experience in Boston, metro N.Y.C. area, New Orleans, and Tampa; since 1986 stationed mainly at SDB provincial HQ as editor, general manager of book publishing, and PR officer. Boy Scout chaplain since 1995.